South Asia Citizens Web

19th September marks five years of the Batla House ‘encounter’. Neither was this encounter unique nor the last in our long and shameful history of extra judicial violence. It has however come to symbolize how Constitutional principles are undermined and all safeguards subverted to protect a system based on impunity.

Just the time when the whole country is deeply concerned and disturbed about the rising sexual assaults against the women, a very eminent criminal lawyer of the country Ram Jethmalani chose to insult and humiliate the victim of the Asaram sexual assault case by describing her as a girl suffering from psychological disorder making her desire to meet men alone! Appearing for Asaram, as his defence counsel before the High Court of Rajasthan at Jodhpur, Ram Jethmalani argued that the case against Asaram is wholly fabricated and disputed the age of the girl.

We women and Human rights organisations of Rajasthan condemn in no uncertain terms, the slanderous arguments provided by Senior Advocate Ram Jethmalani in the Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, while arguing that bail be granted to child sexual abuser and assaulter Asumal Harpalani alias Asaram

Kaval village is about three kilometres away from Jansath in Muzaffarnagar district. Hindus and Muslims have always lived in amity in this village, whose population is around 15,000. On 27 August 2013, Shahnavaz, a youth from Kaval, had an argument with Gaurav, a Jat youth from Malikpura, a village two kilometres distant. Media reports and rumour have linked this argument with “eve teasing”. However, at this time there is no evidence of any such association. The Uttar Pradesh D.I.G. (Law and (…)

This fact-finding exercise was coordinated by the Centre for Policy Analysis. Team members were the human rights activist and former civil servant Harsh Mander, former Director-General of the Border Security Force, E N Rammohan, Professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy of Jawaharlal Nehru University, National Integration Council member John Dayal, senior journalist Sukumar Muralidharan and CPA Director and senior editor Seema Mustafa.